Kan. Planned Parenthood receives abortion license

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Kansas avoided becoming the first state in the country without an abortion provider by granting Planned Parenthood a license Thursday to continue performing abortions under new regulations being challenged in federal court.

The new rules from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment tell abortion providers what drugs and equipment they must have on hand, how big some of their rooms must be and the specific temperatures allowed in procedure and recovery rooms. The department is imposing them under a new licensing law that takes effect Friday.

The licensing law is part of an unprecedented surge of anti-abortion legislation that has advanced through Republican-controlled legislatures in many states. Collectively, the measures create an array of new obstacles — legal, financial and psychological — for women seeking abortions and doctors performing them.

Kansas has three abortion providers, all in the Kansas City area, and two of them haven't obtained licenses and can't legally perform abortions until a federal court intervenes. A hearing in a federal lawsuit involving the other providers besides Planned Parenthood was scheduled for Friday in Kansas City.

Ahead of that hearing, the attorney general's office argued in a filing Thursday evening that the license for Planned Parenthood undercuts other providers' arguments that the regulations eliminate access to abortion. The filing included a copy of the license.

Bonnie Scott Jones, an attorney for the Center for Reproductive Rights replied: "That's certainly better than no one being open, but it's certainly not enough to meet the needs of the women of Kansas."

Supporters believe the rules and the licensing law will protect patients. Abortion-rights advocates see them as deliberately burdensome and didn't trust the licensing process because Gov. Sam Brownback is an anti-abortion Republican and abortion opponents pushed the law through the GOP-controlled Legislature.

Some abortion opponents anticipated the possibility of an "abortion-free" Kansas. Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue, reacted to the possibilty that Planned Parenthood would fail to get a license with, "Praise Jesus."

"There are still two other abortion mills that cannot meet compliance," Newman said. "That is a two-thirds reduction and I will take an accumulated victory every chance we get them."

But Kari Ann Rinker, state coordinator for the National Organization for Women, decried the "continued harassment of women through the legislative process."

"Any delay or any interruption on abortion services has an immediate and direct impact on the women who are waiting for those services," she said.

Peter Brownlie, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, said Thursday its clinic in Overland Park had received its license after initially being denied. State inspectors returned to the clinic Thursday after a two-day review last week.

"It confirms what we knew all along, that we provide high-quality health care," Brownlie said. "We're glad to be able to keep meeting the needs of our patients."

Among other things, the Kansas regulations require rooms where abortions are performed to have at least 150 sq. feet of space, excluding fixed cabinets, and to keep their temperatures between 68 and 73 degrees. Each procedure room also must have its own janitor's closet with at least 50 sq. feet.

Legislators concluded women seeking abortions are more vulnerable than other patients because they're less likely to report problems out of fear of disclosing unwanted pregnancies.

Tactics of other states that have passed anti-abortion legislation have varied: mandatory sonograms and anti-abortion counseling, sweeping limits on insurance coverage, bans on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Kansas has such restrictions, some also enacted this year.

In South Dakota, lawmakers passed legislation requiring women seeking abortions to face a three-day waiting period and undergo counseling at pregnancy help centers that discourage abortion. A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked the new law, saying that Planned Parenthood had demonstrated that it and its specified provisions are "likely" unconstitutional.

Abortion providers protested both the content and the timing of the Kansas rules, arguing that they're being imposed so quickly that their right to due process is being violated.

They received the current version of the standards earlier this month, with less than two weeks to comply with them. The department argued that the law, signed in mid-May by Brownback, forced a fast track.

Besides Planned Parenthood, the state's other abortion providers are the Center for Women's Health, also in Overland Park, and the Aid for Women clinic, in Kansas City.

Two phyicians at the women's center filed the first federal lawsuit against the Kansas regulations and licensing law earlier this week, and Aid for Women asked to intervene. Friday's court hearing is in that case.

Aid for Women was denied a license without an inspection after acknowledging in its application that its clinic would require extensive renovations to comply with the new rules. The women's center cancelled its inspection after its doctors filed their lawsuit.

Planned Parenthood had been certain enough that its clinic wouldn't be granted the license — unfairly, it said — that it filed its own lawsuit Thursday in federal court.

The filing came only hours after a Republican-controlled state board unanimously allowed the health department to impose its rules as quickly as it wanted. The health department does plan to have a public hearing on the regulations Sept. 7 in Topeka and consider changes.

Planned Parenthood's lawsuit said it was denied a license Monday but that it was still in contact with the health department, attempting to assure state officials that the clinic would comply with the new regulations.

The state health department would only confirm that one of Kansas' three abortion providers would receive a license by Friday, but it would not name the provider.

Brownlie said Planned Parenthood's lawsuit would be withdrawn now that the clinic had gotten the license.

Mary Kay Culp, executive director of the anti-abortion group Kansans for Life, said Planned Parenthood had engaged in "theatrics."

"They wanted to garner worldwide headlines, all along knowing they could get their license with fairly simple compliance and not miss one day of abortion business," she said.

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Public hearings! LOL..What a sham! Public hearing won't change the minds of the anti-women crowd. The put out 36 pages of regulations and then expect clinics to do expensive remodels in a couple of days before the 'inspections' when the new law takes affect July 1! What good will public hearings do? These red-tape trap laws did exactly what the Republicans wanted to do. Women may have a right to get an abortion but there won't be anywhere to get one. Abortion is not surgery and less dangerous that having your teeth pulled. Regulating locker space and janitor's room size?? There laws have nothing to do with health and safety of women and everyone know it!

Kansas legislators should quit wasting taxpayer money enacting legislation on issues such as abortion and adult entertainment. Any legislation legislators do pass will be tossed out eventually by the U.S. Supreme Court. The money saved on lawyers fees defending those lawsuits could be better used for education.

Although I completely agree that these new rules are a cheap way for Brownback and his cronies to essentially end abortion services in Kansas, I really hate when abortion rights supporters say that those who oppose abortion are "anti-women". Abortion is not about women, its about human lives. Period. There are plenty of us women out there who think abortion is nothing but a means of ending a human life.

Earth to Sam & Kansans for Life: Abortion is legal in America, period. The U.S. Supreme Court rendered a decision some years ago... let's see, "Roe vs. Wade"... ring any bells? Get over it... You can't put the genie back in the bottle. Yes, we know... "If you can save just one life... and of course, cost the state millions of dollars, embarrassment, shame, etc., as well as a few deaths of women seeking illegal abortions... " then it is all worth it, right? I am glad the Mars people didn't see this kind of BS going on when evaluating Kansas... good thing Sebelius and Parkinson were in charge of working with these people and not Sammy. Gj

No, its not about women. I couldn't care less about what an adult woman does personally. I am not interested in having my will imposed upon someone else nor having their will imposed upon me. Some of us really do believe in the sanctity of human life. Political hacks like Brownback and his ilk may have their own agendas but don't assume that everyone who opposes the ending of any human life, whether through abortion, the death penalty, gangbanging, or war is looking for somekind of powertrip.

I will agree that not giving the clinics at least 8 months to make any modifications is wrong. However, as for the regulations themselves, I do not have a problem with. But I want to ask the question of this. If most of the regulations are based on national guidelines, what is the problem? Is it because people want us to stay more lax in our guidelines to the national guidelines?

I have not yet had a chance to thumb through the national guidelines, but do they cover the room temperature and other regulations many seem to have a problem with?

why don't I get the same consideration in procedures that I may have in a clinic? Aren't I just as good as any woman. Are we men second class citizens now? I think that any clinic or office that does any medical procedures should have the same regulations and be enforced with the same go get'm attitude.

If there was a law passed by Congress or ruled on by the Supreme Court that you honestly felt was wrong, say, the Plessy v. Ferguson decision, would you not do everthing you could to have that law changed? Is it any different with Roe? Lots of folks think it is far worse than segregation since it deals with issues of life and death.

Sorry, but you are so far afield on your accusations, I really don't know what you are talking about. The abortion argument is about whether someone believes that terminating a pregnancy is ending a human life. Politicos like Brownback may have his own agenda trying to please his backers but regular folks just don't like the idea of putting innocent life on the line. All the hyperbole about repressing women and "tax gifts for the rich" are way, way, way off the mark. I couldn't care less what the GOP agenda is.

only if there is reason to believe the action was intentional. If a person's philosophy is that life is natural and sacred, miscarriage, like death, is part of the natural cycle. Your comment is obviously intended to provoke and, sorry, I'm not biting. How stupid do you really think I am? That I would argue with you on such comments?

"It's only February, but this year has been a tough one for women's health and reproductive rights. There's a new bill on the block that may have reached the apex (I hope) of woman-hating craziness. Georgia State Rep. Bobby Franklin—who last year proposed making rape and domestic violence "victims" into "accusers"—has introduced a 10-page bill that would criminalize miscarriages and make abortion in Georgia completely illegal. Both miscarriages and abortions would be potentially punishable by death: any "prenatal murder" in the words of the bill, including "human involvement" in a miscarriage, would be a felony and carry a penalty of life in prison or death. Basically, it's everything an "pro-life" activist could want aside from making all women who've had abortions wear big red "A"s on their chests."

We could probably afford to lose one or two abortion clinics, but we can't afford to lose the Abortionplex. Its the only thing the city has going for it. There will be lots of people who will be disappointed when the Abortionplex closes. There will probably be another one opening up in a different city though.